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A track worker is loaded into an ambulance after he was injured when a forerunner bobsled hit him just before the start of the men's two-man bobsled training at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

A bobsled struck an Olympics track worker and broke both his legs, the IOC said Thursday.

The worker was near the finish line of the track at Sanki Sliding Center when he was hit by a forerunning sled, a vehicle used before competitions to ensure the safety of the course. The worker may have also suffered a concussion, IOC President Thomas Bach told the AP.

“We still do not know why he was in this zone and exactly what happened,” Bach said.

The unidentified worker was taken to the hospital via helicopter, said Sochi organizers, and IOC spokesman Mark Adams told the AP he is “conscious and talking and has two broken legs.”

This appears to be an isolated incident, seemingly due more to human judgment than an unsafe track; in general, athletes have praised the quality of the ice at Sochi.

“To be honest, the ice is phenomenal,” U.S. skeleton racer Katie Uhlaender told the AP. “It’s better than it was in training and whoever they got working on the ice, kudos because they are doing Olympic level work on the track. It is fast and it’s fun.”

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